Hi guys. I have started lessons in Muay Thai and wanted advice on which muscles are the best to be working on at the gym and at what weights/reps etc.
My gym has free weights as well as weight machines and all the normal cardio stuff. Also if anyone knows any exercises that can help balance I would like to know.
Thanks in advance!

I do Muay Thai. My instructor told me not to lift yet until you get the form of your punches, elbows, kicks etc. right. And when you lift you don't add weight, you only add reps.

Hope this could help! Good luck!

I've been kickboxing for 4 years. Weight training as such is generally discouraged but I really helpful thing to do is shadow box with really light dumbells, like 2-5kg. Do one round with and one round without and you won't believe how quickly this speeds your hands up. I've included this article from my gym's website and I hope it's useful. There are loads of other good articles on there.

http://www.prokick.com/kickboxing/artic ... beginners/

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Most important is technique and general conditioning. Practise, practise, practise! Bodyweight circuits, sledgehammering, tyre flipping, heavy bag work etc are all incredible for conditioning. Also, train your CORE! I can't stress this enough, so much of a punch or kicks power comes from the twisting of the hips. Crunches, chinnies, vups, supermans, rollouts, side crunches, situps, lying hip swings, planks, back extensions but to make a few.

Of course you should train strength. However, train max strength, NOT hypertrophy. This way you get dense, strong muscles which aren't bloated and huge.

1-5 reps or 1-5 sets. Lower is more strength. 3x3 is good. Work with as heavy as you can manage.

Adding more reps instead of weight trains strength endurance. Also very important - it stops your muscles tiring out. Best way to train this? LOADS of kicks, bodyweight squats, jumps (explosive strength).

I trained in Muay Thai for 3 months... before I went broke... and let me tell you... work on your stretching... stretch stretch stretch stretch. You can be as big as you want and as strong as you want, but if you can't throw a proper kick, let alone block one... you are doomed.

Get stretchy first brah.

Good advice everyone - thanks! Also if anyone is looking for a new hobby or to get fitter, have a look into muay thai or any martial art - I've been going a couple of weeks now, and as well as being fun it will keep you in shape and teach you how to defend yourself from angry AMOGs lol.

I second the guy who said to get stretchy he's absolutely right
I person ally trained 3 months also before I went broke
In those 3 80% was steretching the other 15 was cardio and 5 percent puches

Kettlebell lifting and bodyweight exercises are *great* for Muay Thai, as well as any martial practice. I recommend checking out Pavel Tsatsouline's and Ross Enemait's sites, tons of good info there (just Google 'em). Also--work your skills, hit the bag, do footwork/mobility drills, etc.! Have fun!

defenetly!
keetlebells is great!
and work on your stretching for thoses killer face kicks }:D

also you could work on your pain tolerence.

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I'll third the kettlebell recommendation.

The old school kettlebell lifts are great for training joint mobility and stability. Not to mention some of the swings are great for developing explosive hip strength which is what you need in any sport to generate lots of power.

As far as conditioning. Nothing beats practice practice practice of the actual sport itself.

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I will fourth the kettlebell recommendation. Its great. And also I second Primal's recommendation for conditioning. Nothing beats conditioning for the sport than doing the actual sport. When I wrestled the only way to get in wrestling shape was to wrestle. That is why my coach would have at least one or 2 days a week where the entire 2 hour practice was just straight hard wrestling.
This I must disagree with. Its not about max strength its about strength over time. You don't want to go hard and strong for 3 minutes then be gassed the rest of the fight. Thats why you should train with high reps. In my routine I have at least 2 exercises per muscle group where I perform at least 20 reps, the highest being about 60. In a little bit I'm going to post a routine that is excellent for martial artists, mixed martial artists, wrestlers, and football players because those are all anaerobic sports so stay tuned for that.

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You need to work on your stretching every day for about thirty mins.
i sugest working your triceps thats the main muscle you use when you punch you should also work you back muscles.
for your balance you need to jump rope every day. start on 2 legs then once you learn how to jump you can hop on 1 leg then switch.(jumproping works your cardio balance rythm and your foot work)

Your coach should have already told you about this, but in combat sports, such as boxing, muay thai, kickboxing, ... you really dont wanna do any lifting. If you're compeled to use something besides the basic cardio/bodyweight excercises, just use resistance machines.

You can improve your balance with little things. You can put your clothes on and while you do it you stand on one feet. Also, putting your shoes and socks on while standing on one feet helps.

get yourself a basket ball and stand on it, but be carefull, it might slip

I trained muay thai but for only a short period. The best muscles to work on are your upper leg muscle, work on your chest and 6 pack abbs. But generally muay thai is a tough sport so youre gonna need to transoform yourself into a muscle machine.

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I 5th the kettlebell recommendation and also reinforce the importance of specific training.

Your training and the way that you lift weights, if you choose to. should be modelled as closely to a technique or movement for the sport in question.

This means the right nerve pathways are trained (which initially gives a greater strength gain than muscle gain. Tis to do with recruiting more muscle fibres) as well as the right muscles being trained for the movement (training the wrong ones leads to poor technique and shit speed)

Circuit train my friend. Do 3 different exercises for a minute have a rest or active rest period for 30 secs and then either do the same 3 exercises or change to different exercises.

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